Jail fewer criminals: Straw

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has urged magistrates to reduce the number of criminals they sent to jail, in a fresh bid to ease prison overcrowding.

Mr Straw pointed them towards non-custodial sentences with a better record in preventing reoffending, as numbers exceeded the projection for the end of next month.

He issued his appeal in an interview with the Guardian after ministers were accused of taking "panic measures" to ease overcrowding by freeing foreign criminals earlier.

Thousands of convicted offenders will be eligible for release and deportation from Britain 270 days before the halfway point of their sentence - rather than 135 days.

Mr Straw said: "The projected population at the end of March was due to be 81,731. We are not at the end of March and we are already 300 above it.

In his message to the country's 30,000 magistrates, he went on: "We have 350 magistrates courts in England and Wales. If each one ends up sentencing one more extra prisoner a week to jail then we have got the increase we face.

"There are effective alternatives in terms of non-custodial penalties which actually have a better record in terms of preventing reoffending than short prison sentences.